Bruins Can’t Punch Their Way Out

The attempted to put up a fight last night and extract a measure of revenge for their fallen teammate Marc Savard, but in the end it was, like much of the Bruins efforts this season, too weak, as they meekly fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-0 at the Garden.

To fans, job not getting done – There are times, rare occasions, when Dan Shaughnessy’s nastiness and acerbic writing are just what is warranted for the situation. Dan may actually have not been harsh enough on the Bruins in this one.

NESN is trying to solve a chemistry problem – Chad Finn reports that NESN is killing “Sports Desk” in favor of a new “issues-oriented show” called “NESN Daily” but is having trouble finding the right chemistry for a cohost to go with Jade McCarthy. Great, another show about “issues” and “takes”, just what we need around here.

Slamming this Patriots pair laughable – Ron Borges says that those criticizing Tom Brady and Ty Warren for not being in Foxborough this week for the start of offseason workouts are way off base.

It’s been reported that the Patriots have a workout scheduled with Indiana LB Matt Mayberry. He spoke with Patriots Daily earlier in the week.

Providence not kind to Cinderella - I try and spotlight some writers from the smaller papers around New England. Today Eric Rueb of the Narragansett Times gets a chance to write about the NCAA Tournament games in Providence. Also see ‘Nova avoids upset by Peter Gobis of The Sun Chronicle.

I’m not sure why anyone would be interested in reading Gerry Callahan’s column this morning: “Tiger Woods textbook example of real sicko.” What’s the appeal? It’s predictable, and Callahan is much too talented a writer to be shoveling this sensationalistic-driven tripe.

With Mike Adams taking over the Big Show this week, my afternoon drive dial has been set solely on Felger and Massarotti, and Felger has been dead-on about the Bruins and this whole Savard/Cooke/Colin Campbell situation.

Mike Adams might be a good fit for the WEEI evening audience, who seem to be well into their nightly six pack by the time the phonelines open each night, but as an afternoon drive host, he’s horribly out of his league. (Though they’re not doing him any favors putting the likes of Larry Johnson and Steve Burton in there with him.) He isn’t current on sports topics at all, most of the knowledge he does have is on the 1970’s Red Sox, (or on Manny Ramirez) and his attempts at humor fizzle quickly. A winning combination.

Share this:

It needs to be said the Bruins will never be anything better than mediocre as long as Jacobs owns the team. Single A team in a hockey town. The organization deserves the ridicule it gets. Yeah, they’ll fire some people in the off-season to make it look like they’re changing things but the more things change…

Funny but we may all have to hunker down in our basements the next few days. CHB “(“fight fiercely Harvard, demonstrate to them our skill“ – great line)” AND Borges writing relevant articles on the same day? The end of the world may be close…

Tony

Right on Lance.

The Jacobs apologists who say that he’s spending up to the salary cap now, so you can no longer call him “cheap” are only telling half the story.

Their scouting department has been, for years, one of the smallest and worst-paid in the NHL, and that’s one of the main reasons why the team has been unable to consistently develop any quality players through their own system.

The only time they’ve really “hit” on first round picks over the last 20-odd years is when they’ve been picking in the Top 10, where you can usually throw a dart at the draft board and end up being right half the time.

Their lack of financial commitment to the scouting department, which comes from the top in Buffalo, will always hold them down.

The entire Jacobs Clan needs to go, because his kids are cut from the same cloth.

http://www.jonvssports.blogspot.com Jon

How the hell can the Bruins drop the ball on scouting? While I would certainly argue that the WCHA has surpassed Hockey East in talent, how fricking hard would it place scouts at BU, BC, NU, and Havard for every game?!?!? Only the Minnesota Wild have a potentially easier job scouting in this country…

Tony

It mystifies, that’s for sure.

If anything, you’d think that Jacobs would emphasize scouting, since developing your own talent is cheaper than going out and acquiring established talent developed by other teams.

I worked at the FleetCenter/Garden from 1996-2000, and back then, the deficiencies in the scouting department were evident, and the employees would complain that Jacobs simply was too cheap to pay for a top-notch scouting department.

If anything has changed in the last 10 years, I’d be surprised, since the payroll, due to the salary cap, has increased from the $40 million average range that Team Buffalo liked to keep it in during the pre-salary cap days.

Lance

I had a landlord for many years like Jacobs. The guy always spent the lowest amount of money possible on repairs. I’d explain to him that if he bought something just one higher in quality he’d save 50% in the long run by having to replace things much less often. He never listened. That’s Jacobs.

http://www.jonvssports.blogspot.com Jon

Not to mention the other half dozen Hockey East, ECAC and Atlantic Hockey teams within driving distance. I’m not saying they should subject themselves to a season at Bentley’s rink, long trips to Orono and Burlington, or watching the debacle that is Friar hockey – but scouting shouldn’t be an issue for this team.

Brian

I had to laugh reading the comments on Shaughnessy’s column (close to 100 when I looked earlier this morning) and on the third page someone noted that this had to be the first time that Shank ever got this many replies without a single one ripping him. I agree with Bruce that he seemed to hold back a bit (probably has no personal vendetta against anyone in the organization).

That said, last night was such a disappointment in what should have been a playoff-like atmosphere, especially with the ’70 Cup champs being honored beforehand. Thornton’s fight was well-timed where it was early enough to jack the crowd up, but unfortunately the team never followed suit. For all the talk this week about the importance of getting the two points in the standings over getting revenge, the Bruins did nothing last night to even show that they were willing to earn the win, instead just flatly going through the motions and taking their own fans out of the game as a result. This could have been the huge momentum shift that the Dallas game was last year, or roped in more fans like Game 6 against Montreal did two years ago, but instead will be remembered as the game that turned a lot of people off.

http://www.jonvssports.blogspot.com Jon

They really ****ed that up. I’m glad that the 70′ Bruins were there to see that debacle. Eddy Shore is rolling over in his grave…

Ann

So Sportsdesk is going away this leaves a void for those of use looking for a morning sports update. I guess we’ll have to go the ESPN Boston site. Although, Sportsdesk has been moving in this direction for a while. I confess I yearn for the old 15 minute highlight recap that they used to do. It was great with my morning cereal. At least now I can stop watching it altogether, and avoid any chance encounters with Mike Adams.

Nate

Comcast Sports Net Sports Central re-airs thru the morning

WhoNeedsIt

This NESN show should be tremendous.

They want it to be like Regis and Kelly states the article.

“Interesting and Entertaining” is what the article says there looking for.

So, who do they audition to be the “regis” role? Steve Buckley, Mazz and Cole Wright.

Three people who are neither interesting or entertaining.

BRAVO NESN

Jason Coyote

Puh-leeze. NESN wants their new show to be just like CSN Mohegan Sun Sports Tonight, they just can’t come out and say they want to copy their direct competitor. I suppose the ‘Regis & Kelly’ reference might be their way of saying they’d like it to be a more light-hearted version of what CSN does, but essentially they see MSST get ratings for their sports programs while they don’t (I’m only referring to non-game coverage, obviously NESN gets ratings for Sox & B’s games).

JayCee

Did anyone catch Felger’s idiotic performance late in Thursday’s show, when they hooked up with the Pittsburgh station? Pathetic. Yes, I know it’s an act, but even an act shouldn’t be so transparent & obvious. He was just raving like an imbecile. And then later DA chortled that it was “great radio.” Any notions that 98.5 was going to travel a higher road than ‘EEI should be put to rest.

Tony

A higher road that WEEI?

Not possible if Felger and Mazz is their “signature” show.

One guy is the ultimate media whore whose act has devolved into being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian (and being loud and shrill while he does it); the other guy has contempt for most of the fanbase in town (particularly Patriots fans, which probably make up half the listening audience) and is the very definition of smarmy media elitism.

Not possible for them to take it to a higher level than WEEI if those two are their “top” hosts.

Eddie

Felger and Mazz are not going to put 98.5 over the top. Felger’s act is old, tired, and predictable. However, every time ‘EEI has Larry Johnson on they breathe new life into F&M. Last week LJ said that the late Butch from the Cape called him at midnight one night to be forgiven for his sins. Larry connected him to the Lord and is sure that he’s in heaven. How lame can this get?

http://www.jonvssports.blogspot.com Jon

Meh. Felger and Mazz are not a huge step up from the Big Show. Tanguay and Zolak are not that different from Dale and the OSU Superfan. I will gladly take DA over Planet Mikey (Please stop picking the Celtics to win 70 games every year) and certainly will take T and R over the Putt Putt Twins.

Jason Coyote

Let’s face it, the days of quality sports radio as it was pre-1991 are dead and buried, save for a few scant hours on Sunday afternoons when Sarandis will resume his new show on 98.5. The object now is to find Boston sports topics that fill four hours of air time with contrarian views from the hosts and generate polarizing opinions from the callers.

Classless

Bruce,
You were right on about Mike Adams. I couldn’t have put it any better.